UNAPOLOGETIC with Ashfaaq Carim

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Chinese political analyst Victor Gao joins UNAPOLOGETIC for a wide-ranging and often conflictual discussion about China's global image, western condescension towards it, human rights and democracy, Gao, a former translator for Deng Xiaoping and a vocal defender of the Chinese state, argues that China is a force for stability, free trade, and development - and rejec...

“A mixture of stupidity and nastiness… The liberal establishment is primarily responsible for the genocide of the Palestinians.”  In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, Yanis Varoufakis unleashes a fierce critique of Western liberalism, and tells us why he feels that the global system is in crisis. This episode explores the facade of Western moral superiority, the role of empire past and present, how li...

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we speak with Sudan’s ambassador to the UK, Babiker al-Siddig Mohamed al-Amin, about the Sudanese government's case against the UAE at the International Court of Justice. The conversation explores Sudan’s accusations of genocide, the origins of the RSF, alleged atrocities, foreign interference and the path forward for a democratic Sudan. We also address difficult q...

Stephen Kapos survived the Holocaust as a child in Nazi-occupied Hungary. In this candid interview, he recalls his time in a Jewish refugee home—hiding his identity with other children to avoid Nazi detection. He reflects on memory, survival, and the different paths his family took after the war, including his journey to London. Kapos also shares how visits to Israel opened his eyes to the country...

In this episode, historian Rudolph “Butch” Ware joins us for a conversation about the global system slavery built — and how its legacy still shapes the modern world. He breaks down the myths we’ve been taught about abolition, the spiritual legacy of resistance, and how white supremacy was not just a byproduct of history, but an architecture that still defines our institutions. We also talk about G...

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we speak with Eyal Weizman, architect, scholar, and founder of Forensic Architecture — a research agency that uses spatial investigation to expose state violence and human rights abuses. We dive deep into the ongoing genocide in Gaza, examining how Israel’s military campaign is not just a war of bombs, but one of deliberate spatial erasure. Eyal breaks down how arc...

Helena Cobban is a journalist who has covered events in the Middle East for more than four decades. Through her reporting, she has interviewed senior leadership across Palestinian movements and political organisations and senior members of Israel’s government. Recently, she co-authored a book with Rami Khouri, an academic and journalist who has also been writing about the Middle East for decades....

“We have not even scratched the surface of the crimes Israel has truly committed” Former BBC journalist Karishma Patel left the BBC because of what she perceived as its editorial “double-standards” while reporting on Israel's military assault on Gaza. In this episode of Unapologetic, she takes us into the newsroom of the BBC and show’s us just how the BBC built an “Orwellian” atmosphere around cov...

In this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC, we speak with Gideon Levy, one of Israel’s most outspoken and controversial journalists.  A longtime Haaretz journalist and columnist, Levy has spent decades documenting the occupation and challenging dominant Israeli narratives.  We discuss Israel’s latest assault on Gaza, Netanyahu’s political calculations, and how Israeli society has responded.  We also explore...

Author, thinker and activist Iyad el-Baghdadi joins us on this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC to break down the impact of Israel’s war in Gaza and its wider consequences for the region. We explore Baghdadi’s hypothesis on whether Israel can survive as a Jewish supremacist state beyond the 2030s and whether a Palestinian state is still viable.  We also discuss what the Arab response to Trump’s Gaza propos...

Egyptian activist and blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy joins us on this episode of UNAPOLOGETIC to speak about how Egypt has changed under Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and how Israel’s war and genocide in Gaza has affected his rule. In this extended interview el-Hamalawy recalls the context of the revolution that overthrew Hosni Mubarak’s rule, why Mohamed Morsi lost power and Sisi’s coup. We explore how suppre...

In this extended interview, Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, reacts to the statements and plans and remarks of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made it clear that his intention is for the U.S to “have” Gaza and to clear out the Palestinians so that it can be rebuilt. Barghouti also speaks about how Israel has stepped up attacks on the West Bank, and...

In an extended interview, Norman Finkelstein, the political analyst and author who has studied Palestine and Israel for decades, speaks to us about the fate facing Palestinians. Finkelstein gives his frank views on how Israel, along with the Trump administration, will continue and accelerate its plan to ethnically cleanse Palestinians as much as they can in the area between the River Jordan and th...

Anat Matar is an Israeli academic and philosopher who is leading an open call from Israelis to have sanctions imposed on their own country. Since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began after the events of 7 October, Matar and a few other Israelis have seen the social space around them get narrower and narrower, as mainstream Israeli society, educators, media institutions and leaders have stood behind Isr...

Gamal Mansour is a Syrian-Palestinian who was forced to move to Canada in 2012, as the Syrian uprising was turning into a civil war. Mansour is also a political scientist who is currently researching strategies that the business sector under the Assad regime employed so that they could remain autonomous from the state. In this marathon three-hour conversation, Gamal Mansour and the host Ashfaaq Ca...

“In Israel they are either bigots, fanatics, sometimes murderous ones… and they are cowards… and unfortunately there is no brave figure that I can see” - Offer Cassif, Israeli MP Israeli MP Offer Cassif has been staunchly against Israel’s long occupation of Palestine and has been highly critical of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The coalition he is a part of  consists of only five seats out of 120 in...

Professor Roy Casagranda is an expert in history and political science. He has hosted a series of lectures that are available on YouTube explaining the history of the Americas, the slave trade, colonialism, and the Arab world and the Middle East. In this extended interview, Casagranda takes us on a history lesson that includes the Sykes-Picot agreement, CIA-orchestrated coups in Syria and Iran, va...

South Africa’s former minister of international relations, Naledi Pandor, speaks to us about the why South Africa took Israel to court for genocide. We also speak about why the world has still not yet intervened decisively and has allowed Israel to continue its onslaught in Gaza, whether international institutions will break down under a new Trump presidency and in the aftermath of Israel’s impuni...

“Fighting racism in silos that was invented by racism doesn’t make any sense.” Rachel Shabi is an author, journalist and commentator, and she has recently published her second book, Off-White: The Truth About Antisemitism. Shabi joined us for a conversation about her book, the fate of Arab-Jewish identity, how Israel’s war on Gaza is polarising global society and how the racist logic that defined...

“I think the Arab leaders are going to be the victims of this genocide in Gaza.” Wadah Khanfar is the founder and executive director of the Al-Sharq Forum. He is also the former director general of the Al Jazeera Media Network. We speak to Khanfar about Gaza, the prospect of regional war, what it means to be a Palestinian and an Arab at this moment in time, and how the frustration being felt by Ar...

In a conversation with Dr. Azzam Tamimi - who is a scholar of political science and has written books on the history of Hamas - we discuss the legacy of Yahya Sinwar. Was it a miscalculation for Israel to release footage of how the Hamas leader was killed? What will it mean for the war? What are Israel's war ambitions and will they succeed?

“It’s not just that the US is complicit in this genocide, the US itself is responsible for this genocide”. A year after the events of 7 October, Joseph Massad speaks about Israel's response and what it has all meant and could mean for the region. Massad speaks about how Israel acts as an extension of US imperial policy. His unapologetic analysis is that it’s an “absurd argument” that the US is bei...

Saying it is antisemitic to oppose genocide is the most antisemitic statement of all" Who is Jill Stein? In this extended interview, Jill Stein speaks about what drives her to want to change the way the USA is governed.  We speak about her early life and the events and ideas that inspired her, and the experiences that convinced her that the best way to make the USA a better country - and more resp...

“That’s part of an empire that has grown rich and grown powerful but refuses to grow up” - Cornel West. In an impassioned and lengthy conversation, Dr Cornel West unapologetically shares moments from his life that shaped him and his ideas and inspired his decision to run as a US presidential candidate. He reflects on his upbringing in the West household, the influence that his parents had on him,...

Andrew Feinstein was born in South Africa in the 1960s, during the era of grand apartheid. He joined the struggle for a free South Africa, and was deployed by Nelson Mandela to serve in South Africa’s democratically elected parliament. The corruption he saw in the higher echelons of power through arms deals led him to move to the UK, where he subsequently wrote multiple books that investigated cor...